


How Many Miles to Babylon

by MrProphet



Category: Stardust - Neil Gaiman
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-10-22 03:53:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10689234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrProphet/pseuds/MrProphet





	How Many Miles to Babylon

Of course it was a trap. The beast in the mines, the pleas for help from the formerly truculent miners… And Tristran had walked straight into it. He had been lucky to survive the rock fall; the stupid, impractical armour his advisers had insisted he wear ‘for appearance sake’ had saved his life, although he was now trapped in its twisted remains.

He thought as quickly as his aching body would allow. He could castle with Rorf, who could easily dig his way out and was probably not injured, but the exchange was not instantaneous; there was a danger that the armour would crumple without his body to support it, leaving Rorf to appear in a space occupied by rocks. He had candles, but his pack was under the rocks and besides, he couldn’t walk a step even if he could slip out of the armour with only one free hand.

Unconsciousness pressed on him, darker than the tunnels, and so he surrendered to it and…

He dreamed a final dream, of his grave and the dirt falling in on him. In the dream he closed his eyes, however, and the fall of dirt became the fall of water and…

He dreamed of the waterfall in the Elfin Dale below Stormhold, of climbing there with his knights to show them that their armour was not always an advantage. He turned and leaped into the current and…

He dreamed of plunging into a deep, blue ocean. He flicked a broad-fluked fail and dived down. Panic threatened to grip him; he was in the dream of a dolphin and dreaming an animal’s dream could be a trap worse than any rock fall. Besides, he was returning to darkness. He looked up at the dwindling light above and…

He flew beneath a dark sky, following the light of the pole star. The solidity of a deck beneath his feet reassured him that he was in a human dream again. He scanned the skies, but the star he was seeking was not there. Instead, he focused on a particular constellation and…

He ran across the plains beneath a starry sky, a bow in his hands. He sought another sign and…

He lay in a scented night garden, nubile beauties curled at either side of him. He panicked slightly and looked back at the sky. Fortunately, whoever this dreamer was he was old and he dreamed an old sky. Tristran fixed on a particular star and…

He hung in the darkness, the heat and brilliance of the star burning against his cheek. He turned to look at her and…

He lay on his bed, gazing at Yvaine’s sleeping form and…

He woke, pain slamming in on him like a hammer blow. His soft cry roused Yvaine from her own sleep. She saw him and called at once for the physicians before stooping and cradling his head.

“What happened?” she demanded, her star’s heat flaring in anger.

“It doesn’t matter,” he assured her. “I’m home now. The rest can wait.”


End file.
